Why and Wherefore of Planning in Police Services Andrew Graham School of Policy Studies Queens University

Why bother?  Old arguments – we’ll always be around  New realities – competition for resources  Planning is more than just filling in a form – it is leadership and direction  You do it or have it done for you  Democratic values:  Authority is from outside the service  Multiple stakeholders

What do you plan to do?  Set direction  Articulate values  Define yourself for others and your staff  Set priorities  Make your case for change and growth  Analyze pressures, uncertainties and opportunities  Communicate, communicate, communicate

What is a Strategic Plan?...an integrated set of goals, objectives and actions designed to bring about a particular result (usually termed a ‘mission’ or ‘vision’) at some future point

Think of a Plan as a Gameboard

Core Elements – the more stable parts

Building an annual Strategic Plan  How can that be? Annual and strategic?  Setting medium range goals key to winning budget support.  Being merely reactive will not win the day.  Process of building a plan is also the process of getting sing- on and support  It is also the process of learning and adaptation for the Service

Annual Goal Setting Budgets Internal Asssessments External Reviews S.W.O.T. Setting Priorities and Goals Operationalizing Strategies Review and Feedback

9 What to look for in a strategic budget linkage Strategic Plan Does this organization know its Mission? Does this organization have an end state or vision? What are the ground rules or basic operating assumptions and principles? Does it have a grip on reality – what is its situation analysis including risks. Does it have goals and objectives that make sense? Are there targets with measures that we can understand. Does what it is going to do this year mesh with its goals and mission? What’s it going to cost? Is it sustainable?

Ch Strategy Formulation Framework Stage 1: The Input Stage Stage 2: The Matching Stage Stage 3: The Decision Stage

Making it all real: Assessing your environment  Purpose: to establish a realistic and credible understanding of the risks, opportunities and challenges for the police service  To gather enough information so that the Board or senior management making decisions about your service or unit can make informed and balanced decisions  To understand the world around you not just as you see it but as other do and factor that perception into your final work plans

What goes into an environmental scan?  key demographic indicators, including recent municipal population forecasts;  community issues, perceptions and concerns ( Public Survey);  crime trends;  emergent police technology  legislative and policing trends

It can’t stop there  Need external input  Role of the Board/Commission  External partners, critiques, observers  Listening to the silence

Making it real: SWOT processes  Different names: environmental scan, risk analysis, etc  Strengths: attributes of the organization that are helpful to achieving the objective.  Weaknesses: attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective.  Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective.  Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the business's performance..

SWOT Matrix Strengths – S List Strengths Weaknesses – W List Weaknesses Opportunities – O List Opportunities SO Strategies Use strengths to take advantage of opportunities WO Strategies Overcoming weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities Threats – T List Threats ST Strategies Use strengths to avoid threats WT Strategies Minimize weaknesses and avoid threats

Setting Priorities and Goals  The vital few  Cannot be all things to all people  Avoid congestion  Clarity and decisiveness It all has to work together

Tactical Planning  High level goals need to be translated into reality  These become the next year targets and sources of money needs (not all the time)  This also becomes the basis for budget requests and assignment of internal funds

Let’s look at how one Police Service does this